Mobile

Radiolab, and former Groupon founder and CEO, and now Detour founder, Andrew Mason have been in town collaborating on an immersive Austin audio walking tour that will debut at SXSW 2015. The Detour app that launched last month takes the team’s expert storytelling skills and translates them into reality through voices, music, and ambiance.

Not only does the Breathometer give accurate readings of your blood alcohol levels to rival devices many times more expensive and cumbersone than itself, it also gives you an approximate time estimate on when exactly you are expected to be at a safe level to drive.

As the Baby Boomer generation continues to age, more and more families are going through untold troubles trying to find, hire and manage in-home care for their seniors. To battle the problem HomeHero, a new startup backed by Science Inc., has unveiled a new smartphone app designed to help people find, hire and manage in-home care for seniors.

Why do we date? To connect. To go beyond fleeting, ephemeral interactions and sharing of internet cat photos to find support, understanding, romance, etc. But what happens when we go beyond preferences to conditional? It’s an intriguing question – just what LA-based CupidRadar is hoping to answer. They operate under the premise of the chance encounter – the one run-in that could yield a deep, meaningful, long term connection.

We’ve been there. Turn on your phone and look at the productivity folder. Three, maybe four apps; each with their own learning curve and rules of engagement. Something to write your notes, another to set reminders, and one that does both. But you know, with a social aspect and extra cute buttons. Kind of like a disarrayed choose your own adventure book about your life.
Okay I’m exaggerating, but if you’re still with me, I feel your pain; of not knowing what keyword to search your inbox for to find your favorite cat video. But luckily, there’s others who feel your pain and they’re trying to solve it. Introducing Fetchnotes.

Hard to believe another Digital LA Silicon Beach Fest Hollywood is happening this week back-to-back with the new LA Tech Summit produced by Cornerstone. Time sure flies when you’re having fun, or building a startup. The theme for Silicon Beach Fest Hollywood is startups and Hollywood, featuring leaders from movie studios, music labels, agencies, and startups in entertainment – how Hollywood studios are investing and working with startups, and how Silicon Beach startups are making entertainment businesses.

My interest was piqued last year during a phone call with Nick Allen, a member of my CALinnovates Advisory Board. Nick told me that he was in the process of winding down his fund at Spring Ventures, which would allow him to focus his energy on a new business he founded with Sunil Paul. The new venture, called SideCar, launched in San Francisco last June.

TechZulu has been covering the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive festival for five years now, and we’ve seen a lot in that time. We remember when Foursquare was battling it out with local Austin competitor Gowalla, and when Brian Solis would instigate pop-up champagne parties at the Driskill.

Wouldn’t it be cool if you can tell your iPhone what song to play or what kind of music you enjoy and it automatically pulls up the songs for you? At the moment Spotify or Pandora can help aggregate certain songs for you, but you still need to type out what you’re looking for and at times it takes a couple of steps to get to what you want. The new app, Vela brilliantly solves that problem for you. It is the first app that brings on-demand music using voice technology.